Top Five Take-Aways from President Obama's Budget

Here are our top five take-aways from President Obama's 2017 budget request:

Makes corporations pay their fair share: Corporate taxes have fallen from more than forty percent of federal revenues in the 1940s to just over 11 percent today. Through a combination of new fees and closing loopholes, the Obama administration proposes changes that would increase corporate tax revenue from $298 billion in 2016 to nearly $419 billion in 2017. President Obama has proposed this before, but Congress hasn’t listened.

Puts college within reach: Once again, President Obama proposes a program to offer two free years of community college, which would cost the federal government $61 billion over ten years. A college degree makes a tremendous difference to lifelong earning potential.

Proposes modest new climate change spending: Even if the administration’s proposed doubling of the clean energy research budget to $12.8 billion would occur over five years, by 2021, the clean energy research budget would be less than two-thirds the nuclear weapons budget.

Gives the Pentagon a raise: The budget increases Pentagon spending by $2 billion over 2016 levels, to $583 billion in 2017. Of that, less than two percent – just $7.5 billion – is devoted to fighting America’s biggest threat, ISIS.

Shortchanges diplomacy: The Pentagon budget of $583 billion is more than ten times the $52.7 billion budget proposed for diplomacy and international aid under the State Department.

For more on the president's final budget request, check out our analysis.